I am currently working on transferring this Website to Tiddlywiki. So long as I keep all the images external, it appears to work nicely. I will be hosting the Tiddlywiki on Tiddlyhost, and pointing that at my domain.

The organisation will be more rational, the content more comprehensive and informative, and (most importantly for me) it will all be more easily maintained.

Everything else is a secret for as long as I’m building the site.

After a great deal of reflection concerning file sizes and hidden fees (I’m glaring at you, Amazon), I have divided the non-annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe (details here) into fifteen volumes, each containing ten texts. These volumes will be released over a period of weeks until the whole edition is available, at which time I will offer a considerable discount on the whole book if you buy directly from me.

Click here to review and purchase Volume 1 – Ko-Fi.com – Amazon.com

Instructions on how to load ePub files on to reading devices may be found through a simple Google inquiry.

I have written before about the draug: a waterborne, vengeful (or perhaps simply resentful) creature of folklore, a revenant of the sea dead, forever denied lying at rest in consecrated ground.

The book is now ready for editing: first by me, then by someone else. And then I shall publish it (paperback and ebook). Stay tuned!

Table of Contents

1. Andreas Faye: Norske folke-sagn, 1844
   • The Draug
2. Peter Christen Asbjørnsen: Norske Huldreeventyr og Folkesagn, vol. I, 1859
   • The Tufte-folk on Sandflæsa
3. Jonas Lie: Den fremsyndte, eller billeder fra Nordland, 1870
   • Elias and the Draug
4. Ole Tobias Olsen: Norske folkeeventyr og sagn samlet i Nordland, 1870
   • The Draug Warns Nils Jamtli
   • The Draug Looses the Boat
   • The Draug Warns of the Skipper’s Death
   • The Draug as Beating Stone
   • The Draug Looses the Jekt
   • Kristensen Husby Strives Against the Draug
   • The Draugs’ Battle Against the Dead on Lurøy
5. Olaus Martens Nicolaissen: Sagn og eventyr fra Nordland, 1879
   • The Sea Draug 1879
   • The Draug and the Fisher–Farmer
   • The Parson and the Draug
   • The Draug on the Church Road
   • The Draug and the Servant Boy
6. Jonas Lie: Trold, et tylfte eventyr, 1890
   • Jo in the Sea Holms
7. Theodor Kittelsen: Troldskab, 1892
   • The Draug
8. Regine Normann: Eventyr, and Nye Eventyr, 1925/6
   • Power Against Power
   • The Red Castle on the Golden Mountain in the North-West Sea
9. Knut Strompdal: Gamalt frå Helgeland, vols. I and III, 1928/39
   • Hans the Trondheimer
   • Johan at Kvitnes and the Draug
   • Pe Johannesso and the Draug
   • The Kelp Stone Was a Draug
   • Mekal Pålso and the Draug
   • The Draug Avoids the Filth
   • The Draug Holds the Jekt
   • The Draug on the Way to Lofoten
   • The Wife of the Draug in Her Confinement
   • The Draug at Varholmen
   • His Feet Were Freezing
   • The Draug Was Lent an Axe
   • The Pejord Horse and the Draug
   • The Draug in the Millhouse
   • Evert Laukholm and the Draug
   • The Draug Came in Oil Skins and Sea Boots
   • Draug Pinch
   • The Draug on the Reef
   • The Draug Given a Lift
10. Dagmar Blix: Draugen skreik, 1965
    • The Draug
    • When the Jekt Aurora Capsized

There was once a boy who arrived at a farm and asked if he might stay the night.

“Of course you may stay,” said the farmer, “but so many trolls are coming here this evening that we shall have to flee, ourselves.”

“Oh, really?” said the boy. “But since I am allowed to stay, then I shall indeed stay.”

“Well, you shall certainly be allowed,” said the man, “and you may eat and drink as much as you like, but we shall flee.”

When they had gone, the boy sat down at the table and began to eat and drink. When he had done so, he clambered up onto a plank between two beams in the loft, and lay down there.

Suddenly a huge number of trolls came tumbling in. Some were big, and some were small, and one was so big that it was frightening, and it had a nose that was so long that most of it lay beneath the table. This troll was the tallest, and should sit in the high seat.

Then the trolls began to eat, and they went down into the cellar for beer. And when they returned, they came with their cups, saying:

“I shall pour you some, Trond! I shall pour you some, Trond!”

“I shall pour you some, Trond!” said the boy – then he fired his gun, and shot off Trond’s long nose.

Then there was such wailing and screaming, and they fussed to haul and drag Trond out. When they came out into the courtyard, there was such wailing, the like of which no one has ever heard.

Then there came a call from away in the mountain:

“What is the meaning of all this uproar you are making?”

And they answered:

“Big brother Berrfjell has lost his nose!”

“Ha, ha, ha!” they replied, and laughed so well.

– Olav Eivindsson Ausdal, Bygland in Aust-Agder, 1913.

The beginning of the following Swedish folktale is grim. It continues as a version of “The Ram and the Pig Who Should Go to the Forest and Live by Themselves” (ATU-130B), with a bit of “The Molly of Dovre” (ATU-1161) mixed in the middle.

But does the parson get his roast?

The Parson’s Roast

A wealthy, though unusually stingy, farmer wanted, once upon a time, to have his children Christened, and he was therefore making ready for a visit from the parson.

“It is regrettable,” he said, “that the parson shan’t have a roast meal when he comes; officials are especially pleased with such things.”

“Oh, we’ll think of something,” answered his resourceful wife. “I know! We can slaughter the cat and tell the parson it’s roast hare. What difference will it make to him?”

The cat, who had been sitting in the kitchen, listening to everything they said, hurried out as swiftly as he could go.

This is among the first Swedish folktales from Sven Sederström’s collection I have translated, and it’s delightful (despite the threat on the cat’s life).